You will know when you get there: A site about New Zealand poet Allen Curnow (1911-2001)

Poetry books & writing

This is a list of each book of poems which Allen Curnow published as well as a note of the year, print run (where known), cover image of the book, number of poems, publisher and any special comments.

Book Name and image

Year

Number of poems

Publisher

Awards / Comments

Valley of Decision

1933

23

Auckland University College Students’ Association Press

First book published aged 22

Three Poems

1935

3

Caxton Press

Enemies

1937

14

Caxton Press

Not in Narrow Seas

(Thanks to Peter Simpson for sending this cover)

1939

–

Caxton Press

Island and Time

(Thanks to Peter Simpson for sending this cover)

1941

25

Caxton Press

Landfall in Unknown Seas

1942

1

Department of Internal Affairs

Poem with music by Douglas Lilburn

Sailing or Drowning

c.1943

15

Progressive Publishing Society

Jack Without Magic

1946, 200 copies

12

Caxton Press

At Dead Low Water, and Sonnets

1949

23

Caxton Press

The Axe: a Verse Tragedy

1949

1

Caxton Press

Poems 1949-57

1957

18

Mermaid Press

A Small Room With Large Windows, selected poems

1962

50

Oxford University Press

Compilation

Trees, Effigies, Moving Objects: a Sequence of 18 poems

1972, 500 copies

18

Catspaw Press

An Abominable Temper, and Other Poems

1973, 300 copies

9

Catspaw Press

Collected Poems 1933-1973

1974

A.W. and A.H. Reed

Compilation

An Incorrigible Music: A sequence of poems

1979

Auckland University Press

NZ Book Award for Poetry

Allen Curnow: Selected Poems

1982

130

Penguin

Compilation

You Will Know When You Get There, Poems 1979-1981

1982

14

Auckland University Press

NZ Book Award for Poetry

The Loop in Lone Kauri Road, Poems 1983-1985

1986

10

Auckland University Press

NZ Book Award for Poetry

Continuum: New and Later Poems 1972-1988

1988

78

Auckland University Press

Compilation, Dillon’s Commonwealth Poetry Prize

Selected Poems, 1940-1989

1990

84

Viking

Compilation

Early Days Yet : New and Collected Poems 1941-1997

1997

Auckland University Press

Compilation

Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry

The Bells of Saint Babel’s: poems 1997-2001

2001

12

Auckland University Press

Montana Award for Poetry

As editor

Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45, published by Caxton Press, 1945Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-50, published by Caxton Press, 1951Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1960

Critical writing

Poetry and Language, published in 1935 by Caxton Club PressLook Back Harder: Critical Writings 1935-1984, ed by Peter Simpson published 1987 by Auckland University Press

Whim Wham

Allen Curnow wrote under this pseudonym in newspapers in New Zealand for many decades. The biography on Allen Curnow by Terry Sturm comments that there were 2,000 or more poems published by Allen Curnow under this name. The compilations were:

1940: Present for Hitler and Other Verses, Caxton Press

1942: Whim-Wham. Verses, 1941-42, Caxton Press

1943: Whim-Wham. Verses, 1943, Progressive Publishing Society

1959: Best of Whim-Wham, Paul’s Book Arcade

1967: Whim Wham Land, B. & J. Paul

2005: Whim Wham’s New Zealand: The Best of Whim Wham 1937-1988, edited by Terry Sturm

Plays

Four Plays, 1972, Wellington: A.W. and A.H. Reed, (Contains: The Axe, The Overseas Expert, The Duke’s Miracle, Resident of Nowhere)